Acquisition of all land to have better control of the environment and to useland as the main resource for development.

The first step was to identify all the land that needed to be acquired for Navi Mumbai. By February 1970, the government notified for acquisition of privately owned land covering 86 villages and measuring 159.54 km² within the present limits of Navi Mumbai under Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act (MR & TP Act), 1966. Land belonging to nine other villages, measuring 28.70 km², was additionally designated in August 1973 for inclusion in the project area. In spite of some challenges, CIDCO acquired all the land after settling disputes about compensation. In March 1971, CIDCO was named the New Town Development Authority for the project. In October, the same year, CIDCO undertook to prepare and publish a development plan as required by the MR & TP Act, 1966.

Development Plan philosophy

A documented plan is a useful instrument for inviting public participation in the development effort, and for providing a commentary on policy guidelines which would be useful to those responsible for implementation. Section 22 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, (1966) envisages the clear designation of particular land areas for particular uses. An implicit assumption is that most of the land is privately owned, requiring the Planning Authority to indicate specifically which areas are to be acquired for public purpose. The fact that the Development plan proposals once approved shall be final and binding on the Planning Authority (Section 31 (6), unless modified by the Government, ensures that, once a land use has been specified, uncertainties as to whether a particular type of use will or will not be permitted on an individual’s parcel of land are ended and he can proceed with development, provided it conforms to the specified land use. The finality of the approved Development Plan and the fact that it is binding on the Planning Authority, except for modifications which are difficult and time consuming to secure, ensure that the pressures and frictions which would otherwise develop to obtain land use changes for particular land holdings are largely eliminated. Uncertainties concerning land use are ended, and both the private land owner and the public authority are free to concentrate on development.

This particular consideration has much less force in the case of the Navi Mumbai Project, where all the land is to be publicly owned by CIDCO. As each area is taken up for intensive development and released to occupants, the land use for that area will remain substantially frozen, open to modification only under the time-consuming and difficult procedure set out in the Act. However, in other areas where development is not immediately contemplated, the Development Authority should clearly enjoy a certain degree of freedom and flexibility in planning so as to modify its plans to suit changing circumstances. CIDCO, therefore, proposes to designate the land uses for the project areas in broad terms only, except for those areas which have been taken up for development where land uses are set out much more specifically and in detail. The Development Plan presented here will consequently be reviewed and revised periodically. Each time such revision takes place, the Plan will be presented a fresh to the public for discussion.

The finality of the approved Development Plan and the fact that it is binding on the Planning Authority, except for modifications which are difficult and time consuming to secure, ensure that the pressures and frictions which would otherwise develop to obtain land use changes for particular land holdings are largely eliminated. Uncertainties concerning land use are ended, and both the private land owner and the public authority are free to concentrate on development.

This particular consideration has much less force in the case of the Navi Mumbai Project, where all the land is to be publicly owned by CIDCO. As each area is taken up for intensive development and released to occupants, the land use for that area will remain substantially frozen, open to modification only under the time-consuming and difficult procedure set out in the Act. However, in other areas where development is not immediately contemplated, the Development Authority should clearly enjoy a certain degree of freedom and flexibility in planning so as to modify its plans to suit changing circumstances. CIDCO, therefore, proposes to designate the land uses for the project areas in broad terms only, except for those areas which have been taken up for development where land uses are set out much more specifically and in detail.

Planning Principles of Navi Mumbai Development

After appointment as the New Town Development Authority for Navi Mumbai, CIDCO prepared the Draft Development Plan for Navi Mumbai which was approved by the State Government in August 1979 and came into force with effect from March 1980. The sanctioned Development Plan envisaged broad land use Zones such as Residential, Commercial, Institutional, Industrial, Regional Park, No Development, etc. The development and the uses to be permitted within these zones is governed by the General Development Control Regulation (GDCRs), sanctioned by the State Government.

With in the boundaries of the 343.70 sqkm. project area, the Panvel and Uran towns, MIDC area, MESB area, Defence lands and existing gaothans together added to 50 sqkm. of area. Of the balance 294 sqkm. area, private land was 166 sqkm (57%), saltpan land was 27 sqkm. (9%) and Govt. Land was 101 sqkms. (34%).
The break of land-use distribution of the 343.70 sqkm area is as under:

In the Development plan, land-use zoning and development regulations are used as tools for environment control. A development (structure plan) plan model is favoured with broad land use zones indicating the uses permitted within each zone, as against the conventional master plan that specifies space reservations for all users at one time.

Considering the massive scale of Navi Mumbai project, as many options as possible were sought to be kept open rather than laying down prescriptions for the entire area at one time. Polycentric nodal pattern of development was adopted, to avoid a Mumbai like situation of activity concentration caused by a mono-centric development model.